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Jimmy Murphy is waiting for a heart donor, not waiting for a life
Jimmy Murphy’s heart was always overflowing with love, even when he needed to wear an LVAD – a battery-powered device linked to the heart by a tube through Murphy’s stomach wall – to keep blood pumping through it.
Despite seven heart attacks and 10 collapsed stents that were keeping his plaque-filled veins and arteries open, he was an avid gardener and an ordained pastor who regularly flew to India to help feed and clothe lepers, and trekked all the way to a Russian prison to visit inmates convinced they were forgotten by the world.
On June 20, Murphy and wife, Glenda, drove to Dallas to await his only option for staying alive – a donor heart. In Tennessee, the wait for a heart donor averages longer than a year; in Texas, the average wait is about four months. A story about his situation ran Sunday, July 26, on the front of the Life section.
Now, Murphy will continue his life’s journey with a brand-new heart beating in his chest. The heart was successfully transplanted on July 27 at Baylor College of Medicine. The surgery lasted nine hours.
Murphy spent a couple of days and nights in the Intensive Care Unit, too weak to sit up or say more than a few words – a burden since Murphy loves to chat. But by the last weekend in July, he was alert and conversing.
“Jimmy was moved to a regular room late Sunday night,” Glenda said via email this week. “They had already removed all drain tubes. He was taking all medicines by mouth (rather than by IV). He was able to walk six laps around the nurses station yesterday, approximately 1/4 of a mile total, which is great.”
He is keenly aware that his gift of extra time on Earth meant another family no longer has that time with a loved one whose life ended unexpectedly. He asked his doctors to thank the donor family and asked his friends and family to pray for the family.
And Murphy is determined to show his gratitude by living a life that is full and loving and helpful to others.
His wife says he had a little problem with fluid retention, which is not unusual in heart transplants, but they don’t think it’s serious.
“They are in the room now doing an ultrasound and we can hear the heart beating,” she said. “What an awesome sound that is.”
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423 757-6391.